Keep Nigerian girls in school! (Ohlese's OhSafe)
Donation protected
We've updated this fundraiser, because we have accomplished our first goal, through your support!
Over the past five months since this GoFundMe was created and Ohlese was launched, we have reached over 300 women and girls across Lagos. We've held learning activities on postpartum care and menstrual health and we've held awareness raising campaigns on gender-based violence. As mentioned before, one goal for us has been to create a safe space for adolescent girls, a space for them to be equipped with the necessary life skills to live full lives. OhSafe, is our brave and safe space for adolescent girls in Epe, Lagos launching in early 2021. It is an after school program that will provide a safe space for girls to be brave, to learn about their bodies, to grow and develop essential life skills, to learn about their civic responsibility, to connect with potential internship opportunities, and to ask questions in an affirming and enriching space.
If you've made a donation before, we thank you for believing in our mission and for making a change in the life of girls and women in Nigeria.
Please consider making a donation to support the launch of OhSafe. A donation of $25 dollars will allow two 2 girls to participate in OhSafe for free and receive a monthly supply of menstrual products.
Here are some pictures from our outreach activities:
Back story by Ohlese founder, Zainab Sulaiman:
For the past two years, I’ve been raising money from family and friends (mostly through Instagram) to donate care packages to moms in need in Lagos during Christmas time. This year, It’s expanding and starting earlier.
Because regardless of the world coming to halt due to COVID-19, women in need are still birthing babies without access to basic care and packages.
Evidently, their needs are greater during this time.
Additionally, I’m combining my passion for maternal health with my work on adolescent reproductive health. (In the picture, you'll see me teaching reproductive health to secondary school students in Nigeria 4 years ago. Boys sat in the front, girls in the back. The girls felt embarrassed to ask their questions. Girls need their own safe space!)
Earlier this year, my team (consisting of two young amazing women) and I were meant to launch an after school program, titled OhLeSe! (“she can do it!”) for adolescent girls in my mother’s hometown Epe.
The program aims to create safe space for adolescent girls, focusing on their sexual and reproductive health, entrepreneurship skills, and linking them with internships opportunities.
However, COVID happened, and we might not be able to start until 2021.
Schools are closed in Nigeria, and while they are planning to reopen in the next couple of months and this in itself is a worry.
Statistics show that 1 in 10 girls across the African continent miss school due to their periods, a monthly phenomenon they have no control over. This is a result of period poverty--when a girl cannot afford mensuration products.
Girls who cannot afford menstrual products will miss school and eventually drop out. With the financial strain of the pandemic, more girls will miss school this year because of their periods and we believe we can do something about this.
This fall, my team and I are hoping to donate 3 months worth of menstrual products to 200 girls in Epe, and care packages to 100 mothers in Lagos state.
How about we do this together? We really need you!
A donation as small as $10 dollars will buy two packs of pads for a girl while a donation of $15 will cover a care package with postpartum essentials for a new mom.
This is a starting point, and it’s just the beginning of the impact and change we’re hoping to make in reproductive and sexual health in Nigeria!
Will you join us?
Over the past five months since this GoFundMe was created and Ohlese was launched, we have reached over 300 women and girls across Lagos. We've held learning activities on postpartum care and menstrual health and we've held awareness raising campaigns on gender-based violence. As mentioned before, one goal for us has been to create a safe space for adolescent girls, a space for them to be equipped with the necessary life skills to live full lives. OhSafe, is our brave and safe space for adolescent girls in Epe, Lagos launching in early 2021. It is an after school program that will provide a safe space for girls to be brave, to learn about their bodies, to grow and develop essential life skills, to learn about their civic responsibility, to connect with potential internship opportunities, and to ask questions in an affirming and enriching space.
If you've made a donation before, we thank you for believing in our mission and for making a change in the life of girls and women in Nigeria.
Please consider making a donation to support the launch of OhSafe. A donation of $25 dollars will allow two 2 girls to participate in OhSafe for free and receive a monthly supply of menstrual products.
Here are some pictures from our outreach activities:
Back story by Ohlese founder, Zainab Sulaiman:
For the past two years, I’ve been raising money from family and friends (mostly through Instagram) to donate care packages to moms in need in Lagos during Christmas time. This year, It’s expanding and starting earlier.
Because regardless of the world coming to halt due to COVID-19, women in need are still birthing babies without access to basic care and packages.
Evidently, their needs are greater during this time.
Additionally, I’m combining my passion for maternal health with my work on adolescent reproductive health. (In the picture, you'll see me teaching reproductive health to secondary school students in Nigeria 4 years ago. Boys sat in the front, girls in the back. The girls felt embarrassed to ask their questions. Girls need their own safe space!)
Earlier this year, my team (consisting of two young amazing women) and I were meant to launch an after school program, titled OhLeSe! (“she can do it!”) for adolescent girls in my mother’s hometown Epe.
The program aims to create safe space for adolescent girls, focusing on their sexual and reproductive health, entrepreneurship skills, and linking them with internships opportunities.
However, COVID happened, and we might not be able to start until 2021.
Schools are closed in Nigeria, and while they are planning to reopen in the next couple of months and this in itself is a worry.
Statistics show that 1 in 10 girls across the African continent miss school due to their periods, a monthly phenomenon they have no control over. This is a result of period poverty--when a girl cannot afford mensuration products.
Girls who cannot afford menstrual products will miss school and eventually drop out. With the financial strain of the pandemic, more girls will miss school this year because of their periods and we believe we can do something about this.
This fall, my team and I are hoping to donate 3 months worth of menstrual products to 200 girls in Epe, and care packages to 100 mothers in Lagos state.
How about we do this together? We really need you!
A donation as small as $10 dollars will buy two packs of pads for a girl while a donation of $15 will cover a care package with postpartum essentials for a new mom.
This is a starting point, and it’s just the beginning of the impact and change we’re hoping to make in reproductive and sexual health in Nigeria!
Will you join us?
Organizer
Zainab Sulaiman
Organizer
Staten Island, NY